Joined In A Web
by symbiotic
Summary: When Amanda Rollins fails to catch a kidnapper she never thought that her shortcoming would lead to a chance encounter with one of the most dangerous entities on earth. Now Amanda will find out that with great power not only comes great responsibility, but the possibility of losing everything she cares about.
1. Chapter 1

**Time for something new!**

 **I've been writing fanfiction for a truly long time, and it dawned on me not too long ago that not only have I never published anything in fanfiction that was for an anime, I never had even attempted to write something with arguably my two favorite characters in speculative fiction; Peter Parker/Spider-Man and one of his real arch rivals, Venom!**

 **Of course I couldn't just do a straight up Spider-Man and Venom story. Thankfully my lovely significant other got me hooked on a rather famous television program called Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. And from my growing obsession with that, the news of a Venom movie, and a general desire to finally try to write my favorite comic book characters, this story was born.**

 **For those of you who want a reference, this story takes place as a sort of "what if" directly after the 2016-2017 Venom mini-series. Also, Manhattan Special Victims Unit exists within the Prime Marvel Universe, so Earth 616.  
**

 **Let me know what you think of these two chapters. If you like it, the story goes on. If not, I'll fine tune it until I get it right. Please critique and support as always.**

 **Kind Regards,  
Symbiotic**

 **PS: For those of you who may read my other work, particularly in the Little Witch Academia fandom, just know I'm taking a break from that fandom for awhile because reasons. All of my plans for that fandom are still ago, just being pushed back for now.**

* * *

This was a really bad idea.

"No, it wasn't just a bad idea," Peter Parker thought as he swung through the city. "This is a stupid idea."

The Web Slinger kept up his pace as he made his way through the city, chasing down the target that both he and the FBI were honing in on fast. They were going after one of the most dangerous enemies he had ever known. Perhaps more dangerous than The Green Goblin and his alter ego, Norman Osborne, depending on what lense the crisis was viewed through. He was even more dangerous than the Superior Octopus, Otto Octavius having taken up residence inside a partial clone of Peter himself that Octavius had continually tried to take him down in. But this enemy, perhaps greater than Osborne or Octavius, was personal.

It was yet another duel between him and the Venom symbiote.

It wasn't supposed to go down this way. The Venom symbiote, after years of trying to do nothing but kill Spider-Man, had supposedly changed for the better. Sure, it had taken up a role in San Francisco at one point as the "Lethal Protector", but it always had hatred for Peter and his alter ego throughout it all. That hatred had spread from host to host, and even the use of special serums developed by Norman Osborne didn't seem enough to truly suppress it. It was only at the behest of Flash Thompson that the symbiote had begun to change, through Flash's heroism with the Federal Government and his subsequent service with the Secret Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy. But Flash had long been separated from the Venom symbiote, and it had become suspiciously quiet since then. Until it had taken up a new host in the thug that was Lee Price. And then things had gone back to the way that they always were.

At least it appeared that way.

The symbiote was now a monster again. It was going on a murderous rampage just as it had done with previous hosts years ago. It didn't appear any different to Peter, it was still the same inky black mass that had been a killer before and was going to stay a killer. At least that's what he knew it as.

Yet here he was, swinging after it in as part of a plan conjured up by none other than Eddie Brock. The most infamous host of the symbiote, Brock perhaps knew more of its inner workings than anyone else. He and the alien had taken vengeance upon and tried to kill Peter and his alter ego numerous times, tormenting his loved ones on an almost daily basis during the height of their battles. Eddie had long been separated from the symbiote, having taken up stints as everything from the symbiote doppleganger known as Anti-Venom to a tenure as the Venom symbiote's "grandchild" known as Toxin. But Eddie had been purged of Anti-Venom and Toxin was now deceased. Peter knew that Eddie knew more about the symbiotes and their inner workings than perhaps anyone else; save himself and maybe Flash. All of that was accumulated over the years of being bonded and going through everything from wanting to kill Spider-Man, being his partner against Carnage, becoming a vigilante, and going back to villainy again. If anyone knew the symbiote well and how to take it down it was going to be Eddie.

And Peter had to put his trust in him, which was certainly not the most confidence inspiring of ideas.

Before he could ruminate further he saw it; the exploding gas tanks, the fire, and in the middle of it all was the seemingly unhinged black and white monster that Peter had been fighting for years; Venom himself.

Peter quickly swung himself down toward the creature and went right after Price. The fire around him was consuming the space at a rapid rate, and Peter had to be careful that the symbiote, which was weakened by fire, was not going to try anything that he wouldn't be prepared for. The Venom symbiote, perhaps more than any Goblin or Doc Ock iteration than he had ever faced, was arguably the most unpredictable enemy he had ever faced.

"Hey there, Chuckles," Peter said. Underneath his mask he let gave a wry smile as he swung down toward his target. Before Venom could truly react Peter delivered a swinging kick from his webline, hitting the symbiote and its brutish host so hard it flung Venom out from the fire circling fire just before it encased them completely. He knew he had removed a threat to the symbiote by getting Venom out of the fire, but now he was more vulnerable to it in a fight. Still, this Venom didn't seem to be nearly as capable of a combatant as either Eddie, Flash, or any of the other hosts it had bonded with.

Venom turned towards him after being knocked backwards. " **You** ," the monster snarled. **"I'll kill you!"**

"I?" Peter thought to himself. It had been a long time that the symbiote had referred to itself as "I". Usually that meant it had taken complete control of its host. Yet it had been some time since the symbiote wanted to do that, and the tone was different this time. It wasn't the symbiote that was declaring it would kill Spider-Man; it was Lee Price.

"Perhaps this plan would work after all," Peter thought. Maybe Eddie was crazy enough, crazy like a fox, that his idea would achieve the result they sought.

Venom charged at him at full force. Peter deftly avoided the assault as Venom began to lash out him. He easily evaded all of Lee's attacks, the strength of the symbiote not being nearly enough to hit him. Spider-Man was a much more formidable combatant against the dual life form that was Venom from when they first fought years ago. He was smarter, faster, and stronger since they had first met.

 **"I'll kill you before I let you chase me around for the rest of my life,"** Lee snarled as he continued his assault.

"Would you listen for second before you get to the brain eating?" Peter asked. He raised his hands and fired from his web shooters, aiming directly at the mouth of the symbiote and its host. As Venom ingested and found his mouth bound up by Spider-Man webbing Peter continued to dodge Lee's assault. It was then that Peter stood absolutely still and faced down the monster.

"I didn't actually come here to fight," Peter stated. He paused for a quick moment, thinking long and hard with what he was about to say. He couldn't believe he was actually going to let these words out of his mouth.

"I came for the suit."

* * *

"I want it back so things can be the way they used to be," Spiderman said.

The symbiote listened closely to the wall-crawler's declaration. _"Back to the way things used to be,"_ it said to itself. _"To the way things used to be…"_

The memories came back hard and fast. When Spiderman first freed him from the prison he had been put in on Battleworld. When he first made his way up the arms of Peter Parker and began the process of bonding with his mind. The elation that it felt when it realized that Peter Parker not only led an interesting life, the kind of life that would be highly entertaining to the symbiote, but also a shared bond. The symbiote appreciated the kind way its host treated it, and Peter had appreciated its powers. The two revelled in their shared strength, the power that came from the two of them being as one. All the memories of their times facing villains like Sabretooth, the Hobgoblin, and Black Cat before she had turned good. The feelings stirred up by Peter and Feliciag Hardy, they were at first foreign to the symbiote. It was the first time it experienced love from the human perspective. And through this experience it had some to realize it was in love with Spiderman. It wanted nothing more than to be permanently bonded with Spiderman.

But that wasn't to be. The symbiote had thought its actions were good. It had thought that going out and fighting crime without Peter's permissionwas a good idea. It was stopping the greatest scum of New York City and striking fear into the hearts of criminals all over the metropolis. But Peter had grown suspicious, and eventually with the help of Reed Richards it had separated the symbiote from himself. And nothing, not even a last ditch bonding to prove its love and need for Peter Parker, could bring them back together. Peter had warded the symbiote off with church bells, and it came to rest and recuperate in the rafters of Saint Peter's.

But that betrayal had seemed so long ago. The symbiote itself had changed. It wanted to be a hero. Flash, and to a lesser extent Eddie, had taught it that it was capable of good even when it was away from Spiderman. It was tired of being used as a weapon. It was tired of killing. It was tired of being dominated and used for villainy the way Lee had once was.

 _"Yes."_

The symbiote began the process, unwinding itself from Lee's brain and nervous system. All at once the former Army Ranger turned crook felt the alien slipping away from him. And as it unwound itself the symbiote began to feel itself flooded with memories; memories of the seemingly lonely child that Lee once was. "Please," Lee pleaded from within. "Please don't leave me. I don't wanna be alone anymore."

And for a moment the symbiote stopped. For a moment it was quiet, hesitating as it witnessed the feelings and memories coming off it. And it strangely began to feel empathy, the same empathy it felt when it first saved Lee and saved him again when he was gunned down.

But in this hesitation other memories began to return. Memories of Lee brutally murdering his parents, memories of Lee gunning down innocent civilians during his military career, and of taking out hits for the various gangs he had come into contact since he left the Army. That killed all feelings of empathy within the symbiote, and it continued its exit from Lee's body, stating with spite that it knew the reason why Lee had killed his parents and that Lee was nothing more than a weak, hateful man who was far beyond redemption.

Lee could feel the symbiote further unwind itself. And as it left him, as it began to process of willfully separating himself from the man who had dominated it and used it as a weapon to gain control and take down his enemies, he made a declaration to the symbiote. "If you leave," he said angrily. "If you leave...I'll kill you!"

For a brief moment the symbiote tightened its grip on Lee, making the former Army Ranger gasp for air. _"No, Lee,"_ the symbiote declared. _"You'll never kill anyone again."_

And with that the symbiote began its final separation, the last of its tendrils unwinding itself from Lee and leaving him powerless upon the ground. It then made a B-line toward Spiderman. "That's it," Spiderman said happily. "Only a little closer. Then things can be just the way they used to be."

"A hero," the symbiote said. "We can be a hero again! Spiderman can be a hero again!"

And then the symbiote heard something, words muttered under Spiderman's breath. "I'm definitely going to hell for this."

 _"What?"_

And before the symbiote could react it felt a deafening roar overtake the street. It wailed in pain, letting out a wretched scream as it tried to find the source of the attack that was rendering it so weak. Its body wretched in pain as it looked around and found the source. It was a man standing in a green shirt and a helmet holding a sonic rifle, one of the most hated weapons the symbiote had ever encountered. It was a weapon that had been used against it countless times, always with the intention of killing it, though usually it only succeeded in weakening it. And this sonic rifle was amplified to the max it possibly could be, sending out painful waves through the air that tore at the symbiote.

"No!" the symbiote screamed in agony. It continued to get bombarded by the sonic waves. "Why?! Why are you doing this?!"

The symbiote watched Spiderman turn to the men who had been firing the sonic rifle. They reached inside a large truck for something and handed it to Spiderman. The symbiote immediately recognized the object; it was a containment unit.

Spiderman had set up a trap. The symbiote had put its trust in Spiderman, in Peter Parker, the one it wanted to be with the most, and it was immediately betrayed.

 _"I hate you…I HATE YOU!"_

And in the fury of the battle, as Spiderman moved in with the containment unit the symbiote took notice of something peculiar; an open manhole cover.

Without hesitation it made its next move.

* * *

Sirens and the slightly deafened rumble of Ford V8s broke through the night air of New York City. A black Crown Victoria whipped its way around the corner of the wet New York City streets. The blue and white lights of the cruiser spun, setting of flashes in the air as the car made its way closer and closer to its destination, and to the drivers' intended target.

It was a high stakes operation for detectives Dominick "Sonny" Carisi and Amanda Rollins. The Manhattan Special Victims Unit had been working overtime the past twenty eight or so hours in a high profile Amber Alert situation. Two days ago an eight year old girl by the name of Annabelle Westler had been picked up by what appeared to be the wealthy girl's personal driver from her ritzy NYC private school. But instead the driver did something far more nefarious.. He figured that kidnapping Annabelle Westler, the daughter of a powerful hedge fund manager, would result in a large payday. He had carefully staked out his plan, monitoring the girl's schedule so to see a weak point to get the girl when she was in school. The plan he hatched had gone perfectly.

What he didn't anticipate was Annabelle Westler having Type 1 diabetes and needing regular insulin injections to not fall into diabetic ketoacidosis. Now the stakes had been raised considerably. Her parents had done a good job keeping things relatively secret, as if they didn't want the world to know their daughter was afflicted with the condition. Now the kidnapper found himself up shit's creek without a paddle. Annabelle was increasingly within the throes of ketoacidosis. She was on the border of coma territory, barely lucid and unable to scream or say a word. And if this continued on any longer Annabelle would certainly die. The kidnapper only wanted ransom money, not the dead body of a child. A first degree murder charge was not something he wanted to deal with.

Rollins and Carisi had been in on the hunt for Annabelle from the get-go and were not about to let things slip up. When a local patrolman tracked the stolen Lincoln Navigator that the driver was using to drive Annabelle around in the entire SVU squad mobilized themselves with the help of the greater 16th precinct. Though it was intended to be a hostage negotiation there was the very real possibility that force would have to be the way they would rescue Annabelle Westler, and that was why every resource the Sixteenth Precinct could pull together was being brought to bear on this rescue.

Or so that was the plan.

As Carisi continued to drive toward the rendezvous point Amanda felt a vibration from her pocket. Reaching down she whipped out her smartphone and looked at it closely. It was a call from none other than her commanding officer, Lieutenant Olivia Benson. Amanda swiped left on the call and listened closely. Her lieutenant's words made her groan in defeat before she hung up on the call.

"What was that about?" Carisi asked.

"It was Liv," Amanda sighed. "We're not getting backup like we were supposed to."

Carisi had a dumbfounded look on his face as he tried to maintain his eyes on the road through the labyrinth of buildings that led into an old industrial park laden with several abandoned factories and decayed warehouses. "Why aren't we getting backup?" he said in a shocked tone. "We're dealing with a hostage taker holding diabetic child. What could possibly be more important than that in the city right now?"

"Liv said there was a helicopter crash uptown," Amanda said.

"A helicopter crash?" Carisi said in shock. "Are you serious? What the hell was that about?"

"Liv doesn't know anything beyond that Spider-Man was somehow involved," the blonde explained. "Isn't it just so fitting?"

"Yeah the night you and I gotta do a hostage negotiation we get no backup because that wall crawler had to take down a helicopter," Carisi said. "That's just great." He shook his head at the absurdity of the situation before looking back over at his partner. "Just our luck isn't it, Rollins?"

"Yeah, just our luck," Amanda replied with a forced smile and a shake of her head.

Carisi's agitation did lighten her mood a little, even if the situation still clearly sucked. This was the price though in living in New York City, a city seemingly overrun with superheroes and supervillains that constantly were jockeying with one another. Amanda was certainly glad that there were heroes who could keep New York safe from things that the NYPD couldn't protect them from. That didn't mean she didn't think that sometimes they were a massive nuisance and got in the way of some of her job. None of those heroes seemed to get more in their way than Spiderman, perhaps the most famous of all the heroes who resided in New York City. It seemed like if there was ever a battle with a super villain that was gonna hold up Rollins and the rest of SVU from doing their job it almost always was Spider-Man. Still, she remained rather ambivalent toward the web-slinger; unlike Carisi who almost religiously read the Daily Bugle and bought into the anti-Spiderman hype that J. Jonah Jameson liked to peddle.

Web-Slinger shenanigans aside Rollins knew that her and Carisi were still well equipped to deal with the hostage situation. Rollins had developed a strong ability to negotiate with hostage takers, exemplified by her confrontation with Holden March, where she had successfully freed several students the young man had taken hostage. Rollins still wondered about that day and whether she would have been able to get Holden out of the building alive rather than just in put him within the center of NYPD sniper's scope. It was one of many situations she frequently wondered and thought introspectively about since she had arrived in New York, perhaps though more than any other.

Rollins hoped that this would be an easy negotiation. Pass the money the crook wanted and get Annabelle Westler back. But nothing ever goes so easily, so Rollins tried to play out every possible scenario in her head. There was the possibility they were going into an ambush, that the kidnapper had backup who would gun them down for the money and take Annabelle away. There was the chance Annabelle was already dead without her insulin. There also was the possibility that Carisi and her might be able to bring the kidnapper to justice, which would really make her evening.

Eventually they stopped near the loading dock of a warehouse that had clearly seen better days. Parked there was the black Lincoln Navigator the kidnapper had stolen. Rollins and Carisi stopped their Crown Vic and shined their lights on the SUV, creating a perfectly illuminated space for the exchange to take place. Rollins and Carisi both grabbed their Glock 17 9mm handguns and loaded them with fresh seventeen round magazines. "I'll go to the trunk and get the money," the Staten Island native said. "You confirm he's got the girl and talk him up before I bring out the package."

Amanda nodded her head and got out of the car, hands at her sides to show that she wasn't a threat despite packing heat. "Hey," she called out. The Navigator continued to rumble in front of her. "We're here for Annabelle Westler."

The kidnapper poker his head out the window. He had a white lamb face animal mask over his face and wore what appeared to be a black leather jacket. Amanda remained composed. "You got the money?" the kidnapper questioned.

"You got Annabelle Westler?" Amanda questioned.

"Where's the money?" the kidnapper demanded.

"My partner is bringing it out right now," Amanda said. "Just get out of the vehicle, give us Annabelle, and you can go free."

There was a pause their exchange before the kidnapper rolled up the window of the SUV and shut it off. Keeping the lights on, he exited the Navigator and shut the door behind him. Rollins watched as he walked to the back seat and reached inside. He revealed to her a limp Annabelle Westler, her body hanging lifelessly and her eyes shut like she was in a deep sleep. Amanda took careful note of this but also remained anxious. She had to get Annabelle away from him and fast.

"You get the girl when I get the money," the kidnapper stated firmly. "And if you double cross me I won't hesitate to snap her neck."

"We don't mean any trouble," Amanda assured him, maintaining a straight face at his imminent threat. "But we have to get her to a hospital or she'll die. And if she dies then I am not letting you walk away from this."

"Then show me the money. Now."

"You want the money?" Carisi called out. Amanda watched as her partner walked up into the light with a gym bag containing $500,000 dollars. He walked in between Rollins and the kidnapper. "The money is right there. Now put the girl in that spot. You can take the bag and go after that."

The kidnapper stood still for a moment before walking up to the bag and setting Annabelle down. Once he did Carisi rushes up and held the ragdolling girl in his arms. He put his fingers on her neck as he held her up. "She's got a pulse!"

"Oh thank goodness." Amanda quickly sprinted her way over to Carisi's side and held up Annabelle with his help. But as she stood there she heard something very surprising.

She heard a struggle, the kidnapper's gruff voice cursing over something. Rollins looked over her shoulder and saw something she did not expect to see; the kidnapper had looked himself out of the SUV.

"I got a plan," Amanda said.

Carisi raised his eyebrow. "You're not gonna do what I think you're gonna do, are you?"

"Call a bus and then get Liv and Fin over here ASAP," Amanda ordered. She stood back up and turned toward the kidnapper, quickly drawing her Glock and aiming it at his head. "Down on your knees and put your hands up, now!" she ordered.

For a brief moment Rollins feared that maybe the kidnapper would pull a gun of his own. But much to her surprise he didn't do any such thing. Instead he bolted and began to flee the scene, sending Rollins' adrenaline spiking as she sprinted off in chase.

The kidnapper led her around the back of the warehouse before fleeing down an alley between two buildings. Amanda kept chase, maintaining a consistent distance as she breathed rhythmically to keep up the pace. She followed his every move in the chase, doing her best to close the gap as the kidnapper threw obstacles at her in the form of garbage cans and other debris as she kept up. Eventually she found herself closing the distance.

And then the kidnapper did something most unexpected. Seeing a possibility to evade Rollins' pursuit, he began to climb a chain link fence. Amanda wasn't having any of it. Doing her best Spider-Man impression, Amanda grabbed onto the fence and climbed herself. The kidnapper reached the top of the fence before jumping down towards a section of the Hudson River. The fence was rusty and was abrasive against Amanda's hands, but her police training and great physical condition let her scale the wall before jumping down to face the kidnapper.

Once down on the ground she continued to give chase, increasing her speed to keep up with the kidnapper. She began to gain ground on him, the distance between them closing with even greater haste. Amanda decided now was the time to use all of what she had to offer. Digging deep within herself, she burst forward and went to make her takedown on the kidnapper.

But as she made her final push toward the man who she was hellbent on taking down Amanda felt herself lose her footing. In her haste she didn't anticipate a pile of rocks beneath an embankment impeding her path. And before she could even try to right herself she fell face first into the rock pile, only breaking her fall with her hands as she landed on the mound of stones.

As the adrenaline slowed down within her Amanda soon began to feel pain, a sharp pain coming from her knee. The pain was particularly agonizing. It throbbed and smarted in ways Amanda hadn't felt in years. She was almost certain she had broken it somehow or torn ligaments; at least it felt that way. She grimaced in agony as she held her knee against her chest. Inwardly she cursed herself. Not only had she hurt herself but the kidnapper had gotten away. Her pursuit had been for nothing.

And then Amanda heard one of the last noises she could possibly want to hear; the sound of water flowing through a pipe. She looked up and saw the source, a drain of some kind that led from the sewers. She listened in agony as the water grew louder and louder as it moved down the pipe.

Amanda didn't even have time to mutter the word "shit".


	2. Chapter 2

_"Curse him! I hate him. I HATE SPIDER-MAN!"_

That was what was most on the symbiote's mind. Betrayal. Anger. Hatred. These feelings were nothing new to the creature, and they especially weren't new in regards to Spider-Man. It should have known that Peter Parker and his alter ego could not be trusted. It should have realized that the same feelings of fear, disgust, and hatred inhabited Peter Parker, at least it believed them to be. Now those same negative feelings were stirred up in the symbiote again. It hadn't felt those feelings in years.

And yet...it couldn't bring itself to the darkest of desires. Even with all the negativity and the great betrayal it felt, it couldn't bring itself to think the most negative of things. It couldn't bring itself to kill Spider-Man.

It didn't want to kill anymore. It had killed enough at the hands of Eddie Brock, Mac Gargan, and Lee Price. The thoughts of the bloodshed it caused and the destruction it had caused were all that apparent inside. Even in its weakened state the symbiote took a moment to cringe at the killing it had partaken in.

The symbiote swore it would be better than its offspring, it's maniacal descendant that had christened itself Carnage. It always thought it was better than the monster which it had spawned. But in that moment the symbiote knew it wasn't better. Even with its desire to share a strong bond and not take over its host, the symbiote deep down felt it was still nothing more than a monster. It knew it was nothing more than something most fowl, a creature of chaos and death that had tried to masquerade as something good, something trying to help the innocent.

 _"Innocence,"_ the symbiote thought. _"I am no longer innocent._ "

The symbiote tried to rationalize things inside. Peter Parker had spurned it, and that had made it vengeful and hate ridden. Eddie Brock and it spent years trying to kill Spider-Man, doing everything in their power to destroy the one they thought most vile. It was only after Spider-Man had helped Eddie and the symbiote save Ann Weying that things began to turn around, that Eddie "saw the light" and the symbiote did too. They still hated Spider-Man to be certain, but now that hatred was tempered by a truce and a realization that Spider-Man also saved innocent lives. That all fell by the wayside when Eddie and it decided to separate. It later killed Angelo Fortunato out of disgust. Mac Gargan and it revelled in killing, maiming, and generally causing misery. And Flash Thompson initially used it to kill before he made the change.

Flash reminded the symbiote it could be a hero, and a reunion with its kind helped it begin to move past its violent history. But being with Lee Price had infected it with the same homicidal thoughts it had for years when bonded with hosts like Eddie and Mac. This was the nature of the symbiotes; for all their benevolence and incredible powers they could be easily corrupted if they bonded with the wrong being.

The symbiote desperately wanted to be good. It wanted to be a hero. _"A better hero. A better hero than Spider-Man."_

A better hero than Spider-Man? The symbiote scoffed. Who in the world could possibly do more things heroic with the symbiote than Spider-Man? Maybe Flash, but Flash was long gone. Eddie wanted to be a hero too, but not one like Spider-Man. The symbiote wasn't sure it wanted to be that kind of hero, the so called Lethal Protector, again. That didn't seem all that different than being with Mac, just more focused.

It continues to muse as it made its escape. The blast from the sonic rifle was more powerful than any the symbiote could remember. Normally it could recover from sonic attacks with relative ease; symbiotes were almost immortal unless subjected to their most extreme weaknesses. But this time was different. Now the symbiote was in truly grave danger of giving out, and not just because of the sonic rifle. It had taken a gamble and used a trick it hadn't used in years to escape Spider-Man and the containment unit. That strategy had left it in a near catatonic state. The symbiote could only barely ruminate on its thoughts and memories. It couldn't do anything else and was left to float aimlessly down the river of filth taking it into the sewers. The symbiote didn't care. It was just glad it was away from Spider-Man.

As it continues to flow down the disgusting stream of sewage the symbiote caught sight of something peculiar. It saw a light at the end of the tunnel, illuminating coming into greater focus. The symbiote for a moment wondered if it, like humans speculated, was going to meet its maker. It was so wounded that maybe it was going to die, the light just being a sign that the end was near.

It let itself slip through the light and felt the air of the night take it in once more.

* * *

It didn't take long for the remainder of the Sixteenth Precinct to arrive in the industrial park with some backup. Even with the helicopter crash and subsequent standoff of which little was known outside of being caused by Spider-Man, the Special Victims Unit was not going to be held back from doing its job. Child abduction cases were amongst the highest priorities for Manhattan SVU, and the stakes were even higher knowing that they had a sick child on the verge of death in this case.

Lieutenant Olivia Benson stepped away from another patrolman's car and went up to Carisi. The blonde Italian-American detective had a worried look on his face. "You okay?" Olivia asked.

"Yeah," Carisi replied. "The little girl, is she gonna be alright?"

"She's on her way to Mount Sinai," Olivia said. "I think she'll be fine." Carisi nodded his head and looked at the surroundings, watching as the CSI team combed the area and the Navigator for any signs of the kidnapper.

Both Olivia and Carisi watched as Sergeant Odafin "Fin" Tutuola came up next to them after hanging up his cell phone. "That was Dodds. They just finished up with that crash and are gonna be looking for our guy now."

"Any word on what happened there?" Carisi asked.

"He's not saying much but from what he heard the FBI was involved and that Spider-Man was there," Fin explained. "1PP doesn't know much else."

"Wait wait wait," Carisi said, gesturing with his hands in disbelief. "You mean to tell me that Spider-Man was working with the Feds?"

"Like I said, no one knows for sure," Fin replied. "But whatever happened uptown got them both in the same place at the same time."

"Yeah well that can't be a coincidence," Carisi said. "Spider-Man wouldn't be working with the Feds for no reason. Something has to be up."

"Well all we can do is speculate for now," Olivia said with a shrug of her shoulders. "The Feds sure have a way of keeping things from us anyway. We'll probably never know."

"Yeah but he'll be plastered all over the papers tomorrow for this," Carisi said. "Lot of acclaim for someone who apparently caused a helicopter crash and probably got people killed."

Olivia rolled her eyes and Fin shrugged his shoulders. Like Fin had said, they were completely in the dark about this. They weren't up town to see whatever Spider-Man and the FBI were doing. Neither Olivia or Fin shared Carisi's prejudice for the wall crawler. Fin had no real opinion on the red and blue hero. He never had a reason to like or dislike Spider-Man, as the web slinger typically dealt with less powerful villains in the city than heroes like Iron Man or the Avengers did. Olivia had a more positive outlook. Spider-Man was her son Noah's favorite superhero. He had also once helped SVU unintentionally by catching a serial rapist who had been prowling near Hudson University. Olivia herself wished she and her unit had made the arrest, but she was happy that they didn't have to do much when they found him hanging from a light pole in a cocoon of webbing.

"Hey, Carisi, where's Rollins?" Fin asked.

"She took off after the kidnapper but I didn't see where.."

They didn't have to look for the blonde detective for long. A foul scent filled the air and made all three members of SVU cover their noses and gag. While he was holding his hand over his mouth Carisi looked over and saw a rather gruesome sight. Amanda Rollins, his partner and close friend, was covered from head to toe in brown water and apparent sewage. The liquid had seeped completely into her hair and clothes giving her an unsightly palor to her skin that made look as disgusting as could possibly be. To top it off her chest and pants were covered in a splatter of oily black goo. Olivia, Fin, and Carisi couldn't believe their eyes.

"What the hell happened?" Carisi asked as he held his nose.

"I fell down near a drain pipe," Amanda said. She winced and held her knee. "I really fucked up my knee trying to chase that guy down."

"How did that happen?" Fin said.

"I tripped over some rocks while chasing the perp," Rollins explained. "While I was down some shit, for lack of a better term, came out of the pipe and...well, here I am." She winced again at the pain and held her knee.

Carisi went to take off the jacket. "Here," he said, going to hand her the coat. "Get you into something fresh."

"No thanks," Rollins said. "I don't want it to get dirty." The black goo was clinging to her hands after she touched her clothes. "I just wanna get all this shit and whatever this is off of me already. If I don't I'm gonna be.." Carisi watched as Rollins' doubled over in agony and emptied her stomach onto the pavement in heaves. He bent down and rubbed Amanda's back, keeping his hands away of the goo as best as he possibly could while Rollins threw up.

Olivia bent down herself to comfort her subordinate. She accidentally touched the black substance covering Rollins but strangely it slid off of her hand despite clinging to Amanda's body. Olivia raised her eyebrows at this but wrote it off as typical New York City pollution. "Amanda, I think you should go with Annabelle on the bus and get checked out," Olivia proposed. "You look like you really hurt your knee and if you ingested any of that sewage you'll…"

"Trust me, Liv," Rollins said before yacking up the last of her vomit. "I only ate shit when I fell on the rocks, not when I was caught in the path of the sewer." She stood back up and inhaled deeply before exhaling loudly. "I'm just pissed he got away. I practically had my hands on him. Nothing to do about it now but go back to the office and file paperwork over all this."

"Oh no you don't," Carisi interjected. "You aren't going anywhere near you desk looking like that, Rollins."

"But I…"

"Rollins, if you go back to the office SVU is gonna be working out of a trailer for a month while the hazmat people clean up your mess," Fin stated. "None of us are going anywhere near the precinct if you go back like that."

"Fin's right," Olivia said. "Go home, get a shower, and take the day off tomorrow, Rollins. You could use a break after all this."

Olivia watched as her blonde detective sighed in defeat. Carisi offered to take her home, and the two detectives walked away while she and Fin wrapped things up at the crime scene.

* * *

Most of the ride with Carisi was done in silence, Amanda too embarrassed to speak and Carisi trying his hardest not to gag at the smell in his car. Amanda felt absolutely mortified about sitting next to Carisi in her current state. The two had become close friends since he had joined SVU a few years after Amanda's arrival from Atlanta. They spent their fair share of time outside their jobs together and enjoyed each other's company. Now Rollins could tell Carisi did not enjoy her company, and that he was likely to tear the seat she was sitting in and burn it, at least she felt like that was what he would do. So she remained silent, too embarrassed to speak a single word.

 _"Amanda Rollins."_

"Hmm?" She picked her head up from the leaning position she was in and looked around. "Did you say something?"

"No. Why?" Carisi stated as he drove toward Amanda's apartment.

"Nothing," Amanda said, brushing it off. She leaned back against the windowsill and looked out at the streets going by.

 _"Amanda Rollins."_

She shook herself this time and looked back at Carisi. "Okay, why are you doing that?"

"Doing what?" Carisi said perplexedly.

"Whispering my name to yourself," Amanda said. "I heard you do it twice now."

"I didn't say it," Carisi replied.

 _"Amanda Rollins."_

"i just heard you do it again! Don't lie about it."

"I'm not doing anything!"

"You're really creeping me out here, Carisi."

"Rollins, I swear on my great Nona's grave that I am not muttering your name to myself," Carisi asserted. "You're probably just hearing the wind."

"Yeah okay," Rollins scoffed with a roll of her eyes. She was certain that Carisi was messing with her and somehow pulling a simple prank. There was no way the wind was saying her name. The only other thing was that maybe some fumes from the sewage were making her hear things in her head.

And maybe it was those same fumes that were sapping the pain away from her knee. When Rollins first fell down the pain was so excruciating she had trouble getting up from the rock pile. It took even greater effort to try to walk back to the crime scene and stand up. She was certain that if she didn't break her knee that she must have tore some ligaments. That should have left her completely hobbled, but she was somehow able to walk back on her own power. Now the pain wasn't nearly as bad, borderline livable, and she felt like her knee wouldn't give out on her if she tried to walk normally without a limp.

Eventually the two arrived at Amanda's buildings and said their goodbyes, Rollins thanking Carisi for putting up with her filthy state and the Italian-American detective telling her to get well soon and cheer up over losing the kidnapper. Rollins opened the door to her apartment building and trudged inside. As she walked up to the elevator one of her downstairs neighbors saw her and promptly turned away with his hand over his mouth. Amanda figured he had wanted to take the elevator like her but that he changed his mind after seeing how horrible she looked. Rollins never felt so mortified in her entire life.

As she got into the elevator and pushed the button the go up to her floor Amanda accidentally touched her right hand on the oily black goo that was still covering her body. It clung to her hand and body like mucus, as if someone or something had sneezed all over her. Rollins tried to wipe it off but it only seemed to stick to her hands more. She tried shaking it off herself by flicking her hands but that was only helping a little, the goo splattering the walls of the elevator ever so slightly. Largely it clung to her body and no amount of shaking or tearing seemed to get it off.

Eventually she reached her floor and made her way to her apartment. After unlocking the door with her key she walked inside. There Amanda found her sister Kim watching television with her dog Frannie. Immediately after she walked in through the door Frannie bounded over to her excitedly. Amanda watched as Frannie, in typical dog fashion, went to leap up on her and grew even more excited when she realized her owner was covered in filth. Dogs liked filthy, stinky things, and Amanda tried to step back and nudge Frannie away with her foot before her mutt spread the stench and possibly the goo all over her apartment, which she was already trying desperately to not track in with her shoes.

"Oh my...," Kim Rollins said with shock, her southern drawl slipping lose. She got up off the couch to go help her sister. "Amanda, what in the world happened?"

"Kim please," Amanda replied, holding up her hand to stop her sister, the black goo interwebbed with her fingers and covering her torso in thick strands. "I'm fine, really."

"Well you don't look fine," Kim said. "Here let me help you get your stuff off."

"You don't have to," Amanda said as she began to remove her shirt, black goo still intertwined with her hands but falling off of her as she removed the shirt. "I don't want you getting this crap all over yourself."

She threw her shirt off and Kim caught it, touching her hand to the viscous black substance covering the piece of clothing. "What in the name of God is this?"

"I have no idea," Amanda said. "It came out of the sewer."

"The sewer?" Kim said confused. "What were you doing in the sewer?"

"I took off after a suspect," Amanda said as she flipped her shoes off and went to undo her belt buckle. "I fell down under a pipe and got covered in New York City wastewater. It's nothing for you to be worried about."

"It didn't have anything to do with that helicopter crash on the news did it?"

"Not even close," Amanda replied as she worked her way out of her boots.

"I heard Spider-Man was there at the crash," Kim said. "You know some people already think that Spider-Man had…"

"Yes, okay, I get it. People think Spider-Man caused the helicopter crash. Can't you give it a rest, Kim?!" Amanda shot back. She watched her sister coil backwards slightly, but she wasn't done. "Maybe if he hadn't been doing whatever the fuck he was doing uptown Spider-Man could've, ya know, helped me catch the kidnapper of an innocent girl who's laying in a diabetic coma right now over at Mount Sinai? Maybe I wouldn't have had to go after the guy, fallen on my face into a pile of rocks, screw up my knee, and get covered in a pile of Manhattan pollution if it hadn't been for Spider-Man not being there? Okay?! God like what is it with people thinking Spider-Man is so amazing?! Honestly you know what I think? I think Spider-Man fucking sucks!"

Amanda stopped herself when she said that. Kim was stepping back in fear, not quite quivering but clearly unnerved by Amanda's ranting. Frannie was also clearly caught off guard, the pit mix stepping back and moving in front of Kim's legs in a somewhat cowardly manner, whimpering lightly. The older Rollins sister went to say more, but not before a wail began emanating from behind a door in the apartment. The crying made Amanda both exasperated and take her anger down a notch. "Amanda, look what you've done," Kim said in a scolding tone. "You've gone and woken up Jessie!"

Amanda turned to her daughter's bedroom door and sighed. "Yeah...sorry about that," she said. She felt her hands, which were still tangled up in the black goo, sticking tightly to her body before pulling them off and making the goo dangle in thick strands. "Can you take care of her? I really need to…"

"Of course," Kim said quickly. "I'm sorry for…"

"No, I'm sorry for yelling," Amanda conceded, giving her sister a light smile while trying to avoid touching her in her dirty state. "Thanks, Kim."

Kim smiled back and walked into Jessie's room. Amanda meanwhile continued stripping out of her clothes and throwing them into a ball on the floor. She watched as Frannie went to sniff them and pay particular attention to the black goo that was coating them. Frannie smelled the substance closely, Amanda watching her dog and ready to nudge her out of the way if she decided to start eating the gunky mass that coated her clothing. Thankfully though as she stripped out of the clothing the goo seemed to fall away from her. Some of it still stuck to her hands and was caked in her hair, though majority still clung to the clothes before her. Reasoning that getting both the goo and the sewage stains out wouldn't be worth her while Amanda balled up the entire outfit, including her shoes, and threw them in the garbage. She pulled the garbage bag out, tied it up, and placed it alongside the can to be taken out into the dumpster in the morning. For now she just wanted to take a shower.

After setting the water to be as hot as it possibly could be Amanda stepped inside and immediately began to scrub herself down. The shit stains, or at least what she thought were shit stains, couldn't come off her fast enough. She nearly used up all her body wash and an entire bar of soap, along with half a bottle of shampoo, to scrub herself clean before standing in the shower, letting the hot water fall down her body. She wanted to let everything from the previous day fall away from her, to forget everything that happened and just move on. No more kidnappers, no more SVU, and no more Spider-Man.

Why in the world was she all of the sudden so obsessed with and so annoyed by Spider-Man? It wasn't his fault that Amanda fell down and got covered in filth. And despite what the news was probably already spinning he probably wasn't the cause of the helicopter crash uptown. Still, the wall crawler lingered in Amanda's mind for reasons she couldn't quite pinpoint. Amanda wrote it off as an outlet for her frustration. She wouldn't be thinking about Spider-Man come the next morning.

Clean as she could possibly be Amanda left the shower and got changed into some pajamas. Frannie followed Amanda and jumped up onto the bed, kissing her and making Rollins giggle. Scratching her dutiful canine's head behind her ears, Amanda shut off the lights and went to sleep, her mind slowly drifting from the day.

* * *

She stood in the center of a pool of water, a lone patch of land protruding up for her to stand on without getting wet. Slowly she watched as the hazy fog surrounding her began to dissipate and fade away into a greyish version of Manhattan. The city was bathed in an eerie green light that invoked the fog over a swamp. The water faded away to the streets. It was a silent scene, the only noise being Amanda's was confused and curious by what she was seeing. What compelled her to dream something like this?

Suddenly a noise grew around her, a pitter patter of footsteps that grew greater with each step. Amanda looked behind her and saw a man in a lamb mask run up from behind her and shoot past. It was Annabelle Westler's kidnapper, and she was not about to let him get away.

Furiously she tore off after the man, following him through the streets at a breakneck space. Just like their real chase she inched closer and closer with each step, but was befuddled when the kidnapper turned down a side street and seemingly disappeared.

It was then that the world around Amanda began to shift again, this time becoming a courtroom. Amanda stood still, watching as the scene came into better view. It was the trial of Evie Barnes, the college student who had been raped by two of her classmates because they had seen the porno that she had acted in. Rollins watched in horror as the judge overturned the guilty verdict on one of the rapists. She felt a sinking feeling in her gut as she wanted to stand up and do something, anything to change the outcome of what had just occurred before her.

 _"Amanda Rollins."_

The voice she was hearing before, the one that she swore Carisi was muttering under his breath, was here inside her dream! Amanda became highly confused. Just what was this? Why was the voice coming up. But before she knew it the background began to shift again, and this time it shifted to an apartment building where she and her former partner Nick Amaro were chasing down a suspect named Michael Whedmore before he arrested, tried, and found not guilty for a rape that SVU was certain he committed.

 _"We could have saved her. We could have stopped him."_

It shifted again, to this time a rural area outside of Gloversville, New York, where Amanda watched as a scene unfolded with a state trooper and two men in a car. Amanda realized the men were serial killers Gregory Yates and Carl Rudnick, and that the state trooper was one of the victims they had taken during their escape from an upstate prison. Amanda watched with horror as Yates tortured and killed the woman, raping her before snuffing out what little life was left for him to take from her.

"We could have saved her as well."

Amanda froze in her tracks at the sound of the booming voice before her. It was airy and somewhat raspy, almost spectral, and unearthly quality to it. It was so jagged sounding that Amanda wasn't sure she could assign a gender to it, but it definitely sounded "alive" to her, not functioning like some kind of machine. This voice definitely sounded like it belonged to something living.

"Who are you?" she called out. There was silence for a moment but a brief glimmer of movement caught her eye, a small dash of white moving quickly out of the corner of her gaze. "Hello?"

 _"Amanda Rollins, you are good. You want to protect the innocent."_

Amanda raised her eyebrow. "Well yeah I do but…"

 _"But you failed."_

"Failed?" Amanda said back curiously. She furrowed her brow and clenched her fist before she again picked up the movement with her eyes. She breathed in with a hint of sharpness as she caught more sight of it, a black and white streak moving so fast she could barely make it out. "Who are you and what do you want?"

 _"We want to help you. To be good. To protect the innocent. To be a hero."_

"What are you talking about?"

 _"You, Amanda Rollins, are good. No senseless killing. No mindless death. You are a hero. But you have failed the protect the innocent."_

"Again, what are you trying to…" Amanda raised her eyebrow yet thought about what the voice was saying. Before she could say anything else the background shifted, shifted again, and shifted some more. Amanda was shown vivid scenes of victims, many victims, of senseless crimes that she had solved and perpetrators she had failed to catch during her years as a detective between her stints in Atlanta and New York. She was given vivid images of abused children, battered abuse victims, dead bodies left in the streets, and smirking perpetrators who had gotten away in the courtroom on not guilty verdicts. Every person who she had failed to bring true justice to was made vividly clear in the swirling blackness before her. Amanda held her ground though. "This is just a bad dream," she said to herself. "This is just a rough night and…"

Before Amanda came a different scene. Flashing lights, those of a police car, surrounded her body. Soon she found herself not in New York City or Atlanta but somewhere out on a rural road, one that she recognized as being outside of the Georgian metropolis she had called her home. There she watched as a police officer approached a run down Dodge Omni that had clearly seen better days. Recognizing the car, Amanda approached closely and watched as the police ordered the driver of the car to step out into the night air and put themselves against the vehicle. As Amanda got closer she watched as a skinny blonde woman got out of the car and was slammed against it by police officers before being cuffed. It was once the woman was against the car that Amanda recognized who the woman was.

It was Kim, the time she had been pulled over for speeding and later arrested for being caught with a bag of oxycodone pills.

It was the incident that led to Amanda being confronted by Chief Charles Patton. It was the catalyst for her leaving Atlanta in the first place.

 _"You failed to protect the innocent, but not because of your lack of will. You failed because the limits you have cannot be surpassed. You can only do so much to protect those in need of it."_ Amanda felt herself grow sick and her knees buckle. She couldn't believe that this was coming to the forefront.

Amanda felt a warm presence, a soothing glowing feeling come up her body from her lower back up to her neck. And then different scenes began to play out. She saw the kidnapper of Annabelle Westler in police custody. She saw the rapist of Evie Barnes incapacitated and a judge rule in favor of Sarah Walsh. She saw all the failures that had taken place with different outcomes, positive outcomes in fact. Justice was served. Righteousness was brought upon the wicked. The innocent were protected. Amanda was no longer a failure.

 _"Join with us, Amanda Rollins."_ She could feel the warmth grow more apparent as the voice sounded closer and closer. _"Join with us and together we will be able to protect the innocent."_

For a moment the warmth ceased its growth and paused. A cold feeling came over Amanda and she watched as the positive visions she had began to change began to the nightmare she was having, the retelling of all of her failures as a law enforcement officer. This time the memories were far more visceral, far closer to reality, so close that Amanda could swear that they were causing her physical pain and discomfort. But through it all the warmth clung to her tightly. It didn't go anywhere whatsoever.

"So we can better protect people if we work together?" Amanda asked.

 _"That's right. So what do you say?"_

Amanda watched as the visions continued to unfold. As it again came up on that of her sister getting arrested she clenched her fists.

"Let's do it."

And the warmth grew around Amanda and made everything into a blur.


	3. Chapter 3

It was the wind that first keyed her into something being off.

Amanda could feel a gust come over her body, sending goosebumps all over her exposed arms, thighs, and neck and even on her back through the thin t shirt that she had worn to sleep. She clenched her arms and curled up into a tighter ball as she laid still, shivering as the gust came over her again and send the goosebumps shooting back up her body. Now she could feel the sting of the cold breeze against her nose, toes, and the tops of her hands.

And then she felt something more, a hard sensation underneath her head and a crick in her neck. The sensation felt like her head was resting on a rock or some other kind of hard surface, not against the fluffy pillows that she kept on her bed. And the crick in her neck was quickly growing more painful by the second. Shifting around her position, she turned herself over and felt the hard sensation under the rest of her body. Now she was growing more concerned but remained asleep. Surely she was just having a rough night after work, too much time in her office chair perhaps.

The gust blew over her again and Amanda rolled over once more, curled up tightly. She was still very uncomfortable, her body slammed against the surface. Struggling to keep herself warm, she reached over to grab a blanket and pull it over herself. Maybe that would help her get more comfortable than she was feeling. But when she went to reach for a blanket she noticed something as her fingers touched a rock hard surface.

Amanda's eyes shot open. She frantically began tapping the ground around her, flailing and trying to find some semblance of the bedroom she had drifted off to sleep in hours ago. But all the sensations from the cold air to the feeling of resting on a rock hard slab were impossible to ignore. She wasn't in her bedroom anymore. She was somewhere outside her bedroom, outside her apartment.

She quickly sat up from her spot. All around her were lights and tall structures penetrating the night sky, brightening the evening for miles to see around her. She could feel the wind bounce off the structures around her and pick up greater speed, sending chills down her spine and make her cover herself in a futile attempt to stay warm. Even in the warmer spring season the air was still nipped at her skin. Covering herself with her arms was about all she could think of doing as the gust came and went, sending more goosebumps up her body until it passed away.

Amanda stood up only to find her feet be greeted with the sensation of something cold and hard beneath her feet. She looked down and saw that her feet were standing on rough concrete. And as she looked around further the domineering size of the structures around her became all the more readily apparent. As another gust blew through her and sent shivers through her body, she couldn't help but walk around and look at just where she was. And as she moved around her fears were confirmed.

She was somewhere in Manhattan, high up on a skyscraper, resting on a rooftop somewhere that was definitely not her apartment building.

" _Amanda Rollins_."

Amanda froze and stopped in her tracks. It was the same jagged voice that she had heard in her dreams. "Hello?" she said, confused. "Who's there?" There was a pause as the breeze picked up around her. Amanda covered her shoulders. "Hello?!"

" _You don't remember_?" the voice said. " _We've been out awhile now_."

"What?" she said in shock. She looked around herself, over her shoulder and around the building. There was no one to be seen. She quickly began to step back and look around further. "Who are you? Where are you? Come out now!"

" _We're inside you_ ," the voice said. " _We're together now_."

"Come out now!" she demanded forcefully, still walking around the rooftop nervously as she sought to try to find the voice. She still saw no evidence of anyone on the rooftop with her or anyone even close to the rooftop. And yet the voice sounded as if it was right next to her, coming from behind her. It was way beyond just a whisper, it was vividly in her head "Hello? Anybody?"

" _You forgot everything we did, didn't you Amanda_?"

Amanda clenched her fists and looked about her surroundings, trying her best to remain calm and composed in this strange situation she found herself in. "How do you know my name? Where are you? Who are you?!"

" _I know everything about you, Amanda_ ," the voice answered. " _But we don't have time to explain_."

"Don't have time?!" Amanda shot back. "Oh some the voice talking to me after I sleep walked onto this rooftop doesn't have time to explain anything?!"

" _Our first priority is to get back home and ready for the coming day_."

"What are you talking about?"

" _Kim, Jessie, and Franny need us_."

Amanda's eyebrows shot to the top of her head and she felt herself gasp. Kim and Jessie were alone in the apartment. Kim could hardly fight for herself, she was far too frail in her post recovery state to take any adult on. She would never able to defend her niece. And Franny was far more the friendly greeter type of dog than suspicious of anyone's intentions. She'd sooner beg for treats from an intruder than ever attack them. She looked around and saw an entrance to the rooftop used by the maintenance staff. Smiling, she raced over to the entrance and shook the door. The doorknob didn't budge at all. Frantically she shook at the door, trying to get it to move. There wasn't any play in its hinges whatsoever.

" _Well that didn't work_ ," the voice said, a slight tinge of condescendingness coming off its voice.

"Oh you're really funny," Amanda snarled. She shook the door again furiously and banged her fists on it furiously, trying to cause as much noise as she possibly could. "Come on, come on, come on!" Amanda pulled on the door and banged on it with her fist for a few more seconds before throwing her hands up. It was pretty clear that the door wasn't going to get opened by anyone on the other side and there was no way she was going to be able to kick a hollow metal door with her bare foot. Frustrated she threw her hands up and stepped back, rubbing her temples and sighing heavily.

" _We must work together if you want to go home_."

"Why should I believe you?" Amanda said as she held forehead in her hand. "I can't even see you."

" _The door's locked and we have no way of getting someone's attention to open the door for us. I'd say the only way for us to get out of here is to work together._ "

Amanda nodded her head and looked up at the sky as a passenger jet flew overhead, thinking about what the voice was telling her carefully. " _Well what kind of plan do you have that's better, huh_?"

" _Come over to the ledge and we can discuss that further_."

Amanda raised her eyebrow. What was this voice trying to tell her? Go over to the ledge of the rooftop? What was that going to do? Find a mysterious vent that she could somehow squeeze herself into to? It didn't seem like there was any solution to be found whatsoever. But as she stared about the rooftop she began to wonder. Was there really any other thing to do but listen to this voice? It sounded like it had her best interest at heart. And if the door wasn't going to open what did she really have to lose. She couldn't believe she was doing it, but she followed the voice's instructions and walked over to the ledge of the building.

When she arrived there it began to speak again. " _Good. Now let's climb down this building_."

Amanda froze. "Climb down? Are you serious?"

" _Absolutely_ ," the voice said. "There's no other way we're going to do this. Now come on, we haven't a moment to waste." Another gust blew through the air and made her hold her arms against herself, unintentionally making her look down as she looked over the edge. Her heart skipped a beat. She was at least thirty stories up in the air. Just what was this voice suggesting that she do? She swallowed hard and turned away from the edge. " _What are you doing_?"

"I'm not climbing down there," Amanda said hastily. "There's no way I can make it down."

" _And why's that_?" the voice said to her.

"Are you for real?" Amanda shot back. She scoffed at this whole experience. She was talking to a mystery voice while standing on a rooftop in the middle of the night, one that were suggesting she climb down a thirty story wall. Something was seriously wrong. "I'm not Spiderman over here, I can't stick to walls." The voice began to laugh chuckle, a cackling hoarse laugh that Amanda didn't find amusing in the slightest. She clenched her fists and gnashed her teeth. "What's so funny?"

" _You think Spiderman is the only one who can climb walls without something to grab onto_?" the voice said, condescending tone slipping off its voice. " _He isn't the only one who can do that. We're just as capable of doing that ourselves_."

"You're crazy," Amanda said.

" _Why don't you try for yourself_?"

"I'm not going to…" she began.

" _You're ridiculous_ ," the voice groaned. " _I'm sorry, Amanda, but I'm going to have to take the reins for just a moment._ "

"What are you.." And before she could say another word Amanda lost all sensation in her body, her skin ceasing to tingle and no feeling coming from her hands, feet, arms, legs or any other part of her. She couldn't move her mouth, no matter how hard she tried to scream as she felt the sensation leave her body. And yet she was vividly awake as she felt her body walk itself toward the edge. Amanda did everything she could to fight the movement, trying as hard as she possibly could to do something with her body despite losing all feeling in her. But she could do nothing as she was dragged on top of the ledge and left staring down the edge, the distance becoming painfully apparent to her once again. "Holy shit…I'm going to die...I'm really going to…"

" _Die? Death is a very remote possibility when the two of us are working together_ ," She watched herself crouch over the edge. " _Now let me finish and then I will relinquish control. Do you understand_?"

"What are you…"

But before she could speak, Amanda regained just enough feeling to feel herself begin to move again. She clenched her eyes shut but was acutely aware of the sensations in her gut as she began to move and made her way in some direction she couldn't make out for the life of her.

" _Open your eyes_."

Amanda felt the feeling return to her limbs and digits, her skin regaining the tingling sensations of being out in the cold air. Once she began to regain the sensations she realized something else. Her palms and her fingers were against a rocky surface again, and so were her feet. Opening her eyes she was greeted with a most shocking sight.

She was against the wall, holding on to the flat surface with the tips of her fingers and the balls of her feet. There was no slickness, only complete grip. Her eyes shot wide open and she looked around further. She was actually on the wall, holding onto it with flat palms and her toes slightly arched, nothing for her to actually grab onto whatsoever. Below her was the lazy Manhattan street, the minimal activity for New York City happening below her in the dark hours of the morning. And here she was, sticking to the side of the wall without any effort whatsoever.

Amanda had to hold some air in her lungs to prevent all her breathe from going away. " _Oh my god...oh my god...I-I…_ "

" _When we work together anything is possible._ "

Amanda breathed slowly as she held herself against the wall, turning over so her back was against the wall. With both her hands and her feet firmly clung to the wall she was able to marvel at just what she was doing. She was resting against the wall, no sensation of slip whatsoever, holding on with nothing but her fingers o a completely flat wall. She was now free to take in the view of the Manhattan buildings and the quiet (by New York City standards) street below.

" _If you think that view is special you haven't seen what we're truly capable of_ ," the voice said. The tone made Rollins envision it smirking at her as she stayed still against the side of the wall. Not even the wind could move her. She was perfectly still.

" _Okay_ ," she said to herself. She made careful steps with her hands, walking crab style down the wall, careful to avoid any of the windows for the apartment building lest anyone saw her crawling down the side of the wall while apparently talking to herself. " _Okay. I can stick to walls now. This is interesting_."

" _And a rather slow way of moving_ ," the voice said to her. " _We'll never make it back home at this rate_."

"Well do you have any bright ideas on how I can speed this up?" Amanda questioned as she crawled down the wall feet first.

" _I don't see why we can't just repeat what we were doing befor_ e." She furrowed her brow as she continued to descend the wall. Amanda had no money to hail a cab or pay for the subway with and she was almost stark naked, a pair of panties and a white t shirt all that was covering her up as she made her way down the side of a Manhattan skyscraper. Getting home was certainly going to be a challenge, especially knowing she had to be home for her daughter and sister. Kim didn't know all the intricacies of Jesse's morning routines, as helpful as she had been since moving in with Amanda. Not knowing those intricacies could make for an extremely difficult morning. " _You really don't remember a thing of what we were doing, do you_?"

" _Not exactly_ ," she said as she continued to descend the wall with her hands and feet, her ass cold from touching the solid brick wall with her panties.

" _What if we worked together and found a different way_?" the voice proposed.

"I'm not at all opposed considering how far you've gotten me," Amanda said. She couldn't believe she was saying that about a voice that was seemingly emanating from her head with no visible source. "Whatcha got in mind?"

" _To start we're going to jump off this wall_."

Amanda froze in the morning air. "You want me to jump?!"

" _That's correct_."

" _Do you see how high I am are off the ground? If I jump I'm going to…_ "

" _Die_?" the voice said. " _Remember Amanda, death is but a very remote possibility when we're working together._ " She still held absolutely still against the wall, another gust blowing cold air over her as she held onto the wall. She looked down at the ground and began to make her way down slowly. "Besides, my instructions have gotten us this far. What's the worst that could happen from following my advice?"

"How about ending up a pancake on the sidewalk?" she replied back harshly.

" _There's no chance of that happening when we work together_ ," the voice said. There was a pause. " _If you make the jump I will take it from there and get you home. Do we have a deal_?"

Amanda paused on the side of the wall and thought about her options for a moment. She was almost stark naked on the side of a skyscraper, crawling down on her hands and feet and only about a quarter of a way down from where she was supposed to be. She had no money to hail a cab with, no Metrocard to take a train with, and no cell phone to call an Uber ride or a coworker to come pick her up with. She didn't even have her badge on her to solicit a ride from a patrolman on the street, as last resort of a solution that that was. She didn't know how early it was in the morning, but what she did know is that she was far away from her apartment and time was increasingly of the essence. As another gust picked up and rustled her shirt, making her shiver again, she continued to think about her options.

The voice had gotten her this far...who was to say it couldn't get her any farther.

Amanda raised herself off her butt and held herself with one hand on the wall. She took one last look at the ground and swallowed nervously. And with quivering legs she crouched her knees and pushed off, relinquishing any grip that she had on the wall and descending down into the New York air.

For what felt like only one second she was free falling, the street coming up faster and faster as she built up speed. She put her hands out and clenched her eyes shut. She knew this was a stupid move, that it was going to certainly result in her death. She was going to leave her daughter, her sister, her squad, everyone in this world that was important to her, in an apparent suicide jump off of some random high rise in New York City.

" _I know what you're thinking_ ," the voice said gently. " _But it's not over yet. You've done what I asked you to do. Now I'll do my part_."

Before Amanda could mutter a word she felt a series of sensations come across her body, emanating from her spine and running over every inch of her skin. She felt like a hand, a very gentle and soft hand, was making its way across her body, touching every inch of skin as it made its way from the small of her back up every inch of her being. And then she saw the black tendrils.

At first it was just one moving slowly up her right arm. But in no time at all it multiplied into many more tendrils, each moving faster and faster until her arms until they reached the tips of her fingers. Amanda went to scream, but her mouth seemingly ran out of words as the inky black strands emanated from her back like ants from an ant hill and sent strange but comforting sensations over her body. And before she could make sense of it all she felt her arm out stretch, a grappling sensation jerk her into place, and then the sensation of her arms gripping an unknown substance as she swung through the air and landed on the side of another building.

Amanda landed on the side of the building and stopped, looking behind her as she came to a stop. Hanging on the side of the building was a bundled line of a white substance that had stuck to the side of the building like glue. Curious, she crawled over on the wall and examined to the substance, shocked to find it bore a resemblance to spider webbing, except on a much greater and concentrated state.

Amanda had to shake herself for a moment. Looking over her shoulder she saw a window and quickly crawled over to it. And there she saw her reflection. She was no longer wearing her panties and t shirt. Now she was wearing a slick black suit that was covering every length of her body, including her hair and her face. Her fit figure, which she was always proud of having maintained, was now incredibly toned and sculpted underneath the suit, making her look highly athletic. But most striking to her about the suit was the fact that it bore a sleek, jagged white spider upon her chest that seemed to wrap around from the front to the back.

She looked down at her hands and feet, examining them closely and pulling at the edges of the suit while she observed her reflection in the window. "How is this...what am I…what is this?"

" _What are we_?" the voice said. Amanda paused and backed up against the wall at the sound of the voice. She looked around further to pinpoint where it was coming from but there was still no sign of where it could be or just who it was. " _Well there are many things I have to share with you, but now I don't think is the best time. I believe we have important people to attend to at this moment_."

Amanda looked over and saw a building with a digital billboard and clock on the side. The clock read 4:00 AM. "Damn it! I gotta get home. Jesse, Kim...god damn it I'm going to be so late."

" _Not if we work together_ ," the voice said. " _Here, why don't you give it a try? I'll be here to catch you if you fal_ l."

Shaking herself, Amanda raised her arm and concentrated on one spot on the building. From a white patch on her wrist the suit shoot a line of webbing to the other side. She held her hands on the line and thought for a moment, pushing all fears she had aside. And with that she jumped from the building, swinging freely over the street. And with a gentle nudge from inside she raised her arm, shot another line of webbing, and swung once more.

" _Just like earlier in the evening_ ," the voice said happily. " _You've picked up on this well_."

"You know I expect a lot of questions to be answered soon," Amanda said as she shot another line of webbing and swung down the street, her demeanor not all that different from interrogating a suspect.

" _I understand, Amanda,_ " the voice said playfully. " _And I will answer them all for you in due time_."


End file.
